Takeaway.com CEO Jitse Groen said it doesn’t make sense to overpay in its bid to gain control of UK rival Just Eat.
“I don’t want to be the idiot that runs into a ratio that doesn’t make any sense,” Groen said at the sidelines of the Morgan Stanley European Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Barcelona on Wednesday.
Takeaway is currently battling Naspers Internet spin-off Prosus, which officially filed its hostile offer for Just Eat on Monday. Just Eat investors have complained about both the £7.10/share cash offer from Prosus and Takeaway’s all-stock offer, currently valued at about £6.26. Neither company has indicated that they’d raise the bid.
On Wednesday, Takeaway published a presentation expanding on the rationale behind its bid, adding that it expects to launch its Scoober courier service to the UK, which is expected to incur costs in the tens of millions of euros per year.
Takeaway also pointed out that it expects to cut costs by consolidating Just Eat’s five IT platforms, starting in Continental Europe.
Just Eat and Takeaway have a lot of overlap in their shareholder base and so the Takeaway offer is getting a lot of investor support, Groen said.
Higher offer
Aberdeen Standard Investments, which holds about 5% of Just Eat, said that Prosus needs to increase its offer by 20%. The investor also wanted Takeaway to increase its bid. Eminence Capital, which holds about 4%, in September said Takeaway’s bid undervalued Just Eat and that it planned to vote against that deal.
“The Takeaway.com materials published today continue to underestimate the level of investment required in a sector that is changing rapidly,” Prosus said in a statement on Wednesday. — Reported by Amy Thomson, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP